Over the years the agricultural and forestry industries have turned increasingly to science to help feed and house the ever increasing human population. Through the development of various herbicides, fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides for terrestial crop and forestry uses, man has been able to markedly improve the productivity of the land. The increases in crop and timber production, however, have not been obtained without suffering some adverse consequences.
More particularly, many of the herbicides, fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides that have ben developed detrimentally impact the environment in one way or another when used in certain concentrations or under certain conditions. Livestock poisonings, fish kills and other cataclysmic events have resulted. For example, many insecticides such as DDT are particularly stable and resistant to destruction by light and oxidation. With continued use, concentrations of such insecticides may build up in the environment over time to dangerous levels. This may lead to widespread death of wildlife and contamination of water supplies deleteriously affecting downstream population centers.
The problem has not gone unnoticed by the government. The Environmental Protection Agency has recently devised new tests specifically designed to collect the data necessary for evaluating the hazard inherent in these types of chemical compositions. One of the studies developed by the government for evaluating the overall environmental impact of, for example, a pesticide, is a field dissipation study.
Field dissipation studies are designed to determine the extent of pesticide residue dissipation under actual use conditions. The studies generate data that may be utilized to evaluate the mobility, degradation and dissipation of pesticidal residues.
In order for these studies to accurately reflect actual pesticide residue dissipation in the environment, they, of course, must be conducted in an environment representative of the areas where the pesticide to be tested is expected to be used. This is of critical importance as any number of environmental factors may affect dissipation. Some of these factors include, for example, temperature, rainfall, amount and intensity of sunlight as well as the physical properties and composition of the soil.
Past apparatus and methods that have been developed for completing field dissipation studies have been both relatively expensive and difficult to use. In fact, many past apparatus and procedures have actually promoted mistakes during testing that prevent accurate analytical data to be provided in accordance with the rigid test requirements set by the Environmental Protection Agency. A need is therefore identified for an apparatus and method specifically designed for use in performing field dissipation studies that is relatively simple, inexpensive and effective to utilize.